


Gallium, Einstenium, Boron: a Meaningless List of Elements

by Slant



Category: Gödel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas Hofstadter
Genre: Dialogue, Gen, alternate universe - slightly worse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-11 04:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4421942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slant/pseuds/Slant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mr. Turtle, Patroclus and the genie have a dialogue that is slightly worse than the one that Mr Tortoise, Achilles and the Djinn have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gallium, Einstenium, Boron: a Meaningless List of Elements

**Author's Note:**

> So there's this image floating around FB
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/WonderfulEngineering/photos/a.384683868290299.90585.384582714967081/878590058899675/?type=1&theater
> 
> Which reminded me of the GEB frontispiece, only... slightly worse. This inspired me to ask- what would GEB be like, if it was slightly worse?

"No, I can't grant meta-wishes," said the genie, "for that I'd have to call my supervisor, GOOG"  
"GOLD?" Said Mr. Turtle, idly scarping a silver-bronze claw through the sand.  
"No, GOOG stands for Genies Over Other Genies." The genie looked embarrassed. " I can summon my supervisor, and he can grant me a meta-wish no problem, but the thing is, him granting a meta-wish is a meta-meta wish, and he'd have to call is supervisor for that. His supervisor is GOOG too."  
"...and your supervisor's supervisor would have to call his supervisor and so forth." said Patroclus, "Man this is going to take forever."  
"Forever," agreed the genie, "you see each summoning takes exactly as long as the previous one, and we need to summon an infinite chain of GOOG."

**Author's Note:**

> This is not an extract from "Copper, Silver, Gold: an Indestructible Metallic Alloy" by Egbert B. Gebstadter.


End file.
